Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights Act 2001 PDF

 Introduction Govt. of India enacted “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001” adopting sui generis system..Indian legislation In conformity with International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), 1978 Have sufficient pr...

 Introduction Govt. of India enacted “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001” adopting sui generis system..Indian legislation In conformity with International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), 1978 Have sufficient provisions to protect the interests of public/private sector breeding institutions and the farmers. It recognizes the contributions of both commercial plant breeders and farmers in plant breeding activity. It also provides to implement TRIPs in a way that supports the specific socio-economic interests of all the stakeholders including private, public sectors and research institutions, as well as resource-constrained farmers.  Objectives of the PPV & FR Act, 2001 1. To establish an effective system for the protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants 2. To recognize and protect the rights of farmers in respect of their contributions made at any time in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of new plant varieties. 3. To accelerate agricultural development in the country, protect plant breeders’ rights; stimulate investment for research and development both in public & private sector for the development of new plant varieties. 4. Facilitate the growth of seed industry in the country which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers.  Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (11th November, 2005) Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture. Chairperson Chief Executive of the Authority. The Registrar General is the ex-officio Member Secretary Registrar (Three) 15 members Eight of them are ex-officio members representing various Departments/ Ministries,(Registrars -3, Joint Registrar (Two) , Deputy Registrar(3) at PPV&FRA Head Office, Branch offices- Guwahati & Ranchi Three from SAUs and the State Governments One representative each for farmers, tribal organization, seed industry and women organization associated with agricultural activities nominated by the Central Government.. General Functions of the Authority Registration of new plant varieties, essentially derived varieties (EDV) and extant varieties Developing DUS (Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability) test guidelines for new plant species Developing characterization and documentation of registered varieties Compulsory cataloging facilities for all variety of plants Documentation, indexing and cataloguing of farmers’ varieties Recognizing and rewarding farmers, community of farmers, particularly tribal and rural community engaged in conservation, Improvement, preservation of plant genetic resources of economic plants and their wild relatives Maintenance of the National Register of Plant Varieties and Maintenance of National Gene Bank  Cont….. Ensuring that seeds of the varieties registered under this Act are available to the farmers and providing for compulsory licensing of such varieties if the breeder of such varieties or any other person entitled to produce such variety under this act does not arrange for production and sale of the seeds in the manner as may be prescribed Collecting statistics with regard to plant varieties, including the contribution of any person at any time in the evolution or development of any plant variety, in India or in any other country, for compilation and publication  Rights under the Act Breeders’ Rights Breeders will have exclusive rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export the protected variety. Breeder can appoint agent/ licensee and may exercise for civil remedy in case of infringement of rights. Researchers’ Rights Researcher can use any of the registered variety under the Act for conducting experiment or research. This includes the use of a variety as an initial source of variety for the purpose of developing another variety Repeated use needs prior permission of the registered breeder  Farmers’ Rights A farmer who has evolved or developed a new variety is entitled for registration and protection in like manner as a breeder of a variety; Farmers variety can also be registered as an extant variety; A farmer can save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 in the same manner as he was entitled before the coming into force of this Act provided farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001; Farmers are eligible for recognition and rewards for the conservation of Plant Genetic Resources of land races and wild relatives of economic plants; There is also a provision for compensation to the farmers for non- performance of variety under Section 39 (2) of the Act, 2001; and Farmer shall not be liable to pay any fee in any proceeding before the Authority or Registrar or the Tribunal or the High Court under the Act Publications of Authority Plant Variety Journal of India General and crop specific DUS test guidelines Technical Bulletin Gene Bank Manual Agro-biodiversity Hotspots Book (Two Volumes) A video CD entitled ‘Seed of Sustenance’ highlighting various provisions of the PPV& FR Act, 2001 Annual Reports  DUS Test Centers Authority has 52 DUS test Centers for different crops with a mandate for maintaining and multiplication of reference collection, example varieties and generation of database for DUS descriptors as per DUS guidelines of respective crops.  Plant Variety Journal of India Authority publishes its official journal “Plant Varieties Journal of India” (PVJI) as a monthly bilingual (Hindi & English) publication It is made available to public on the first working day of each month on its official website. This journal has the equivalent status of a gazette under the Regulations,2006. The contents of Journal includes official and public notices, passport data of plant varieties, DUS test guidelines of crop species, details of certificate of registration and other related matters.  National Gene Bank Authority has established National Gene Bank : To store the seed material including parental lines submitted by the breeders of the registered varieties. The seed lot is stored under low temperature conditions at 50C for the entire registration period, and if necessary after few years of storage in the National Gene Bank, the seed lot will be rejuvenated and replenished at the cost of the applicant. The seed stored in the National Gene Bank will be used for dispute settlement or when an exigency arises for invoking compulsory licensing provision. Such a seed deposition in the National Gene Bank would dissuade market malpractices or violations as the sample in custody can be drawn to verify the facts. When the period of registration granted lapses, the material automatically moves to public domain.  National Gene Fund A National Gene Fund has been established by the Authority to receive the contributions from: the benefit sharing received in the prescribed manner from the breeder of a variety or an essentially derived variety registered under the Act, or the propagating material of such variety or essentially derived variety, as the case may be; the annual fee payable to the Authority by way of royalty; the compensation deposited by breeders and the contribution from any National and International organizations and other sources.  Cont….. The Gene Fund shall be utilized for:- any amount to be paid by way of benefit sharing, the compensation payable to the farmer/community of farmers’, the expenditure for supporting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources including in-situ and ex-situ collections and for strengthening the capability of the panchayat in carrying out such conservation and sustainable use, the expenditure of the schemes relating to benefit sharing.  PBR Plant Breeder Rights: are the rights granted by the Govt. to plant breeder, or owner of a variety to exclude others from producing commercially the propagating material or that variety for a period of 15-20 years.  To qualify for PBR protection a variety has to be novel, distinct from existing varieties and uniform and stable in its essential characteristics.(N-DUS) A person holding PBR title to a variety can authorize other organizations to produce and sell the propagating material of that variety  Breeders exemption The use of a PBR protected variety (initial variety) for development of new varieties permitted PBR for new variety will be of the breeder who developed new variety and breeder of initial variety has no claim EDV brought under PBR Essentially derived variety-a variety derived from initial variety but retains the expression of the genotypes or combination of genotypes of initial variety Breeder of such a variety be required to obtain permission from PBR holder of initial variety  Farmer’s privilege PBR allows farmers to use material of protected variety produced on their farms for planting of new crop without any obligation to PBR title holder But does not allow exchange of seeds of protected varieties produced on their farms PPVFRA-Website  Benefit Sharing The benefit sharing is one of the most important ingredients of the farmers’ rights. Section 26 provides benefits sharing and the claims can be submitted bythe citizens of India or firms or non-governmental organization (NGOs) formed or established in India. Depending upon the extent and nature of the use of genetic material of the claimant in the development of the variety along with commercial utility and demand in the market of the variety, breeder will deposit the amount in the Gene Fund. The amount deposited will be paid to the claimant from National Gene Fund. The Authority also publishes the contents of the certificate in the PVJI for the purpose of inviting claims for benefits sharing.  Rights of Community It is compensation to village or local communities for their significant contribution in the evolution of variety which has been registered under the Act. Any person/group of persons/governmental or nongovernmental organization, on behalf of any village/local community in India, can file in any notified centre, claim for contribution in the evolution of any variety.  Convention countries Convention country means a country which has acceded to an international convention for the protection of plant varieties to which India has also acceded or a country which has law of protection of plant varieties on the basis of which India has entered into an agreements for granting plant breeders’ rights to the citizen of both the countries Any person if applies for the registration of a variety in India within twelve months after the date on which the application was made in the convention country, such variety shall, if registered under this Act, be registered as of the date on which the application was made in convention country and that date shall be deemed for the purpose of this Act to be the date of registration.  Plant Varieties Protection Appellate Tribunal The Act provides for establishment of Plant Varieties Protection Appellate Tribunal (PVPAT). All orders or decisions of the Registrar of Authority relating to registration of variety and orders or decisions of the Registrar relating to registration as agent or licensee can be appealed in the Tribunal. Further, all orders or decisions of Authority relating to benefit sharing, revocation ofcompulsory license and payment of compensation can alsobe appealed in the Tribunal. There is transitory provision by which it is provided that till the PVPAT is established the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) will exercise the jurisdiction of PVPAT. The decisions of the PVPAT can be challenged in High Court. The Tribunal shall dispose of the appeal within one year.